The tribe, created by DC-based sPACYcLOUd street and skate wear, is emblematic of the most powerful prayer in the Lakota Native American expression "Mitakuye Oyasin " which translates as we are all connected, so honor and respect all life.

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Tag Archives: Washington DC

On Sunday, August 20th, Skate Girls Tribe was stoked to be a part of the RFK Stadium Block Party located in Washington, DC! Events DC has teamed up with a national visual artist, Naturel, who renovated the whole skatepark. The block party was to celebrate his project completion and included skateboarding, various family-friendly activities, live music, and a ton of giveaways!

The freshly renovated park was one jaw-dropping masterpiece! Skaters were totally hyped to be shredding Naturel’s piece of art that is collectively ours as a community!

A ton of visitors came out to experience the grand opening. It was rad to see skaters grind on rails, do kickflips off ramps, and ollie off stairsets! It was a colorful experience which truly captures the vibe and the culture of DC!

Skating RFK park changes the way people see art – it is not just meant to be looked at, but also to be experienced. Skate Girls Tribe and sPACYcLOUd were honored to be part of it.

On August 5th, sPACYcLOUd hosted a fundraiser to raise money for Skate Girls Tribe’s trip to Cuba. It was definitely a success – thanks to everyone who showed their love and support for the team! The contributors included family and friends but also local businesses such as Get Hemp Butter, Mellow Mushrooms, La Tasca, Cuba Cuba, Smash!, Bourbon, LSTN, Tenley Pop Dance Studio, Hemp Kettle Tea, and Embassy Suites. Team sPACYcLOUd was stoke!

The event kicked off with the ragga jungle mixes from DJ Gogo Craig and DJ Blaze One from Tribalistix. They sure know how to get the party started!

Visitors were already making their silent auction bids as they jammed to the music.

The event also included “Hermanas en Ruedas” documentary screening by Amberly Alene Ellis. The film depicts struggles of female skaters in Cuba, their personal stories on how they discovered the sport and unique challenges facing women skaters as their numbers grow.

The film helped us to connect to women in Cuba on many different levels. In DC or Havana, we see similarities in our struggles. Skateboarding inspires us to take action and make positive changes in the daily lives and keep our passion alive. It also helps to break down walls and barriers and allow us to understand one another.

As the auction came to an end, participants were hyped about receiving their items and everyone was impatient for the final outcome. The results? Everyone was a winner! We made new friends, got inspired by female shredders in Cuba, raised money for our trip, learned about Cuba, danced, and grooved. Every person benefited in their own way from sharing love and support for Skate Girls Tribe and sPACYcLOUd!

Team Elephant is thankful!

Big “Thank You” to Local 16 for hosting our event! It would not have happened without them.

As a skater girl, my very first skate sesh with sPACYcLOUd at Palisades, Washington DC was an eye opener. My experience there helped me understand the true meaning of “girl power”. There are so many girls in our community who want to try out skateboarding, but only some would actually pick up a skateboard, and only a very few would dare to go to a skatepark and ride around. Especially when a girl is a beginner skater, being the only female at a skatepark can be quite uncomfortable. Seeing all the guys doing tricks on ramps and rails can sometimes be so intimidating, that we would just end up sitting on the sidelines, wondering if we could ever be as good as them.

Meeting some of the members of Skate Girls Tribe and getting to be a part of their team made me realize that skateboarding is not just about being good at the sport. It is about being good friends with those who skate. sPACYcLOUd helped me make friends with other skater girls. We felt more comfortable, encouraged, and motivated. In fact, it was actually the very first time I’ve seen more girls than guys at the park. We helped each other learn new tricks and challenged each others’ skills. And when we did that, we showed Girl Power!

We met at Reston Town Center and were confronted by police. Guess what!?! “Skating is not allowed at the center”. Really? Just kidding. 🙂 We knew that. We were polite and played by the rules. To kill time while waiting for everyone to show up, Kat, Amy, and Mat had a mini competition in arm wrestling. Of course, Kat defeated everyone. Not!

Once everyone was there we walked to the WO&D Canal which was only two minutes away. We headed east toward Washington DC. The route had a very smooth pavement. The view was amazing with trees, grass, and flowers. We hit couple of small hills and had fun riding it in style.

Everyone enjoyed the ride. We are planning more events especially now that Autumn with its fresh breeze and beautiful colors is knocking on our door. Stay tuned.

Skate Girls Tribe joined other skaters at the A-Frame Challenge organized by Convoy Skateboarding and Alpine Skate Shop. The A-Frame Challenge skateboarding contest tested skills of the best skaters that the Washington DC area has to offer. The jam contest had 50 skaters pit against each other, for a 30 minute battle of grinds, gaps, flip tricks, rails and ledges. It was the first contest of its kind at Lake Fairfax Skate park.

The top three tricks performed on the A-frame within the time allotted would win the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prize. Yoshi Tanenbaum from Silver Spring MD won the biggest prize of $500.00 for the best trick. There was an awesome line up of sponsors with all types of giveaways for the contestants. Skate Girls Tribe offered sPACYcLOUd merchandise.

The girls were happy to be able to participate in a skating contest for skaters of all ages and genders. It could have been daunting to show up at a male dominated venue but the organizer of the event, Eamonn Bourke, created a separate mini contest for girls. This helped the girls get over their initial shyness and do what they came to do – SKATE!!! Ekaterina Nekrasova and Angelina Lauriano were the first girls to show their skills. As the event went another girl joined in. The girls skated for 15-20 minutes and had way too much fun. What the girls found was that there were many boys who supported girl’s skaters at the event. All girls were given prizes from sPACYcLOUd. Overall, the day was a success. We hopes that girls will continue to show out!